South Vanuatu languages

The nine South Vanuatu languages form a family of the Southern Oceanic languages, spoken in Tafea Province (Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango, and Aniwa) of Vanuatu.

South Vanuatu
Geographic distribution	Southern Vanuatu
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic South Vanuatu
Proto-language	Proto-South Vanuatu
Language codes
Glottolog	sout2868

Languages

• Erromango family
  • Southern: Sie, Sorung†
  • Northern: Ifo (Utaha)†, Ura
    (See Erromanga language#Linguistic situation for a description)
• Tanna family
  • Southern: Kwamera (South Tanna), Southwest Tanna
  • Northern: Lenakel (West Tanna), Whitesands (Weasisi, East Tanna), North Tanna
• Aneityum
  • Aneityum (Anejom̃)

François (2015)

François (2015:18–21) lists the following names and locations for the 9 South Vanuatu languages.

No.	Language	Other names	Speakers	ISO 639-3	Region
128	Sie	Se, Sie, Erromanga	1900	erg	Erromango
129	Ura		6	uur	Erromango
130	Utaha		0	iff	Erromango
131	North Tanna		5000	tnn	Tanna
132	Lenakel	Netvaar	11500	tnl	Tanna
133	Southwest Tanna	Nawal	5000	nwi	Tanna
134	Whitesands	Narak	7500	tnp	Tanna
135	Kwamera	Nafe, Nɨfe	3500	tnk	Tanna
137	Anejom̃	Aneityum	900	aty	Aneityum

Proto-South Vanuatu

Proto-South Vanuatu
PSV
Reconstruction of	South Vanuatu languages
Reconstructed ancestors	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Oceanic

Proto-South Vanuatu was reconstructed by John Lynch in 2001.

The language, compared to Proto-Oceanic, went through a series of vowel reductions, leading to the creation of a new vowel written as *ə, such as in *na-waiR "fresh water" resulting in Proto-South Vanuatu *nə-wai of the same meaning.

However, it also preserves some, but not all final consonants. For example, *tanum "to plant, bury" is reflected in Proto-South Vanuatu as *(a)-tenum "to bury", but *taŋis "to cry" is instead reflected as *(a)-taŋi.

Vowels

The vowels of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are:

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*i		*u
Close-mid	*e	*ə	*o
Open		*a

Consonants

The consonants of Proto-South Vanuatu, according to Lynch, are:

Consonants

		Labiovelar	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular
Stop	voiced	*bʷ	*b	*d		*g
	voiceless	*pʷ	*p	*t		*k	*q
Nasal		*mʷ	*m	*n		*ŋ
Fricative		*v		*s	*c, *ɟ	*ɣ
Approximant		*w		*l, *r	*j

References

• François, Alexandre; Franjieh, Michael; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Schnell, Stefan (2015), "The exceptional linguistic density of Vanuatu" (PDF), in François, Alexandre; Lacrampe, Sébastien; Franjieh, Michael; Schnell, Stefan (eds.), The Languages of Vanuatu: Unity and Diversity, Studies in the Languages of Island Melanesia, Canberra: Asia Pacific Linguistics Open Access, pp. 1–21, ISBN 9781922185235.
• Lynch, John. 2001. The linguistic history of southern Vanuatu. (Pacific Linguistics, 509.) Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.